Brits desperate to offload their overpriced timeshare weeks make rich pickings for the likes of Toni Muldoon.

Jean Hanley was dying to get shot of hers so when Yacht Trading UK rang her saying they had a buyer she took the bait.

"I was suspicious when they claimed they could get me a lot of money for it," said Jean, of Fernhill Heath, near Worcester. "But the paperwork seemed fine so I paid £594."

She was promised a refund if her timeshare didn't sell - it didn't but Jean got nothing.

Yacht Trading banked over £500,000 from victims paying up to £1,000 each.

The Companies Investigation Branch of the Insolvency Service found no evidence of sales or refunds.

A petition to wind up Yacht Trading because it was a "vehicle for fraud" is due to be heard in the High Court next week.

The firm was registered to the home address of director Steven Lawrence in Lincoln but he's since moved to Spain.

So has the money. More than half - £280,000 - was transferred to ex-pat Muldoon in Spain or to companies controlled by him and Lawrence.

Muldoon doesn't appear on the paperwork for Yacht Trading. He leaves that to cronies like Lawrence, Richard Mathers and Steven Burrows.

This lot were also behind a similar scam called T-One. Michael Waldon, of Harpenden, Herts, agreed to pay a £495 fee to T-One on the promise of a refund if they hadn't sold within 90 days.

"But three months later all I could get was a recorded message about cashflow problems," said Michael.

T-One had banked more than £2m from nearly 4,000 victims. It was shut down last month after the High Court heard there was "no evidence of timeshares ever having been sold".

We tracked fat frog-like fraudster Muldoon to the Costa del Sol but he refused to talk. At 61, but claiming to be 51, he has made a fortune from telling lies - and he's still at it.

Which brings us to T&MS Ltd - who rang Mandy Andrew of Barnstaple, Devon, in September. "A lovely lady said they had a buyer for our timeshare points," she said. "We agreed a price of £10,000. We had to pay T&MS £899 but she said we'd get it back on completion." Mandy has heard nothing for three months.

T&MS Ltd was set up by Terence and Mandy Sankala, of Caerphilly, in July.

The couple wouldn't talk to our reporter Andrew Gregory but neighbour - and Muldoon stooge - Steven Burrows was a little more forthcoming.

He confirmed being a director of T-One and Yacht Trading "many moons ago" but denied making money out of it. He admitted introducing the Sankalas to Muldoon but added: "I don't want to say anything."

And so to company number four - Harlequin Solutions Ltd. They promised Nancy Johnson of Reading they'd sell her timeshare if she paid £595. Result: no sale or refund.

Harlequin was set up by Burrows in 2006. He said: "To be honest, it's all looking bad. I wish it had never happened."